For 329 Los Angeles
Superior Court employees, yesterday was their last day at work, marking the
first of three planned waves of layoffs and the shuttering of 16 courtrooms.

Presiding Judge Charles
W. McCoy said it was “a dark day for justice” at a press conference yesterday
morning held in one of the 10 courtrooms at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse going
dark as a result of the state’s ongoing financial crisis.

Of the courtrooms
affected at the Mosk courthouse, two carried small claims caseloads, one did
limited civil cases, and seven handled general civil litigation, according to
data released by the court. One civil courtroom in Malibu and one in West Los Angeles were also closed.

The ClaraShortridgeFoltzCriminalJusticeCenter, and the Hollywood and San Fernando courthouses each lost a
courtroom handling criminal matters, and the Santa Monica courthouse closed a
family law courtroom.

Judges Reassigned

McCoy
said the judges who had presided in those courtrooms have been reassigned to
fill existing vacancies, but acknowledged that “at some point that capacity
will run out” and the court would “have to find ways to use our judges
productively.”

He
proposed assigning more judges to the court’s case settlement program to try
and lessen the number of trials, insisting that judges may “have to shift their
duties” but “are never going to be superfluous.”

Up to
50 more courtrooms may be closed by September, when an additional 500 employees
are expected to be released, McCoy said.

In the
next two years, unless the court is able to secure more funding, the court
would have to curtail its workforce by 34 percent, representing a loss of 1,800
jobs, and close 180 courtrooms, he added.

With
the resultant loss of trial capacity, a spokesperson for the court said it was
“possible” the court may create “a more regional situation” where the
departments handling certain substantive areas of law would be consolidated
into fewer locations.

Court
Executive Officer John A. Clarke said no decision had been made as to which
courtrooms and courthouses will be affected by future closures.

Clerical Staff Only

Commissioners and
referees were spared from this round of cuts, which mostly impacted clerical
staff. A total of 172 court services assistant and 103 clerical assistant
positions were eliminated, according to the court’s data. A court spokesperson
said that there were no plans at present to include subordinate judicial
officers in the later rounds of layoffs.

The employees affected
by the initial staff reduction will be on administrative leave for the next two
weeks and officially terminated April 1, McCoy said.

He explained that the
cuts were made on the basis of seniority, and that negotiations with the three
unions who represent the vast majority of the court’s 5,400 employees were
“ongoing” and “the full range of possibilities are being discussed” for
alternatives to further layoffs.

McCoy emphasized that
the court has a budget of about $800 million, about 80 percent of which goes to
employee salaries and benefits, and a structural deficit of about $130 million.
He also noted that Los
AngelesCounty was not alone in
turning to layoffs and courtroom closures in attempts to balance their budget.

He warned that the
consequences of the courtroom closures and layoffs “will be felt everywhere,”
with longer lines, growing backlogs, and delays in processing, “proving the
axiom that justice delayed is indeed justice denied.”

The effects of
yesterday’s layoffs also will curtail services to the public, including the
loss of the operator service at the traffic telephone Call Center, a reduction
in traffic night court sessions, an increased turn-around time for archive
retrieval and reproduction, closure of the fifth-floor clerk’s office at the
Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center and termination of financial
support for the Court-Appointed Special Advocates program, a court spokesperson
said.

McCoy, however, insisted
that “these losses do not need to happen” and reiterated the call he has made
on the Legislature and the Judicial Council to partially reallocate the $5
billion dedicated for courthouse construction and $2 billion allocated for
development of a statewide case management system.

“We need to keep our
existing courts open and operating, and only after that, if money remains to
build new courthouses and buy new computers, so be it.”

The Administrative
Office of the Courts has defended its decision to proceed with the court
construction and renovation projected financed by Senate Bill 1407, a
lease-revenue bond measure signed into law in 2008, claiming that delaying the
41 projects slated to receive that money would impair the state’s ability to
create 105,000 jobs and cost the state an estimated $300 million in lost buying
power for each year of delay.

The organization has
also taken the position that continued work on its case management system is
necessary to prevent a complete loss of its seven-year investment in the
technology.

A protest organized by
SEIU 721 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
which represent court reporters, clerks, phone operators and children’s
attorneys who work for the court, is scheduled to take place this afternoon,
beginning at the Mosk courthouse and ending at the RonaldReganStateBuilding. The event will call on
the Legislature to restore funding for the judiciary.